P!nk FINALLY plays Salt Lake City, 20 Jan 2014.

Well, after two reschedulings that bumped her show from October to January, P!nk finally arrived in SLC and brought her “Truth About Love” tour to the Energy Solutions Arena on January 20. Was it worth the wait?

Well, I’m a bit torn on that…

See, P!nk can sing. She can sing very well, in fact, which puts her leaps and bounds ahead of many other “artists” that are touring the country today. I really enjoyed her singing. I like to think of her as a combination of my two favorite rocker chicks: the energy and bad-assedness of Joan Jett mixed with the vocal power of Pat Benatar. The complete package.

And the rest of the show….

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me start at the beginning.

The opening act, The Kin, (from “Australia and New York”) was really good. This isn’t a review of their set, but let me just say that it was pretty impressive to watch this 3-piece go at it for 45 minutes with a drummer that played without sticks. Yep; he taped up his fingers and beat the crap out of his (modified) kit the whole time. During one of their slower/acoustic numbers, he even went all arty-farty and did his percussion on an old-style guitar case, using the texture of it as a snare/washboard sound and the hollow-body of it for the thumping bass. Well done.

When The Kin finished their set, there was a break of a full 45 minutes if it was a second before P!nk even thought about starting her set. That’s a long time to sit in a ringing arena doing NOTHING. And, the remaining performances not-withstanding, I think she missed a gigantic opportunity to do something really special with the show.

The Emcee declared that one person in the room that night was going to experience the full spectrum of Love during the show: it’s highs and lows, it’s passions and depressions. Of course, the pre-filmed victim selection video brought P!nk out of the audience and the show began.

The band was good, her backing singers were GREAT, and the aerobatics and other gymnastic aspects she incorporated were breathtaking. And, as a side note, it was clear that she uses no backing tracks for her parts; when she stopped singing to do something, she stopped singing. You didn’t hear her voice carrying on in the background. She SANG, as well as PERFORMED. Kudos, again.

Where I think the show missed it’s mark was in that there was no overarching story to link the idea of someone experiencing Love in all its splendor and despair. P!nk’s songs actually capture that pretty well, but after the introduction, I had visions of an actual stage show, like Rock of Ages or West Side Story, but maybe not quite to that extreme. But that never materialized. And I was kind of bummed. Love, with all its facets, is a wonderful underpinning for a story, and P!nk could have driven that all the way home.

Not that I didn’t enjoy the show; far from it. As I said, it was a good, solid, vocal performance (Utah’s cruddy air right now aside), and it was clear that everyone involved was having a good time. I just wish she might have pushed a little farther and given the audience a spectacle, and told a more complete story.

If or when she returns to Utah, I’m sure that the wife and I will be attending, but maybe with better seats this time.

2 thoughts on “P!nk FINALLY plays Salt Lake City, 20 Jan 2014.”

That was an amazing show. Her vocals are spectacular. Her band, back-ups, dancers all did great. Of course her acrobatics was something else. The “MC” was somewhat kind of funny but went on too long in my opinion. Put him on for about 1/4 his allotted time and it would have been perfect….meaning we would have had her for another song or two. This is especially because everyone there was so excited to see Alecia Moore aka P!NK, as much as possible as she really is a superstar and there are so many people who really adore her beyond words….. wanting as much time seeing her as possible. Whenever she showed up on stage after the MC did his thing, the cheering and excitement was HUGE. She really is an amazing presence and I really respect her so much as she does sing…. no lip syncing from that girl whatsoever.